Colin Kaepernick Starts Bay Area Youth Program With Plans For Expansion In Other Cities

The quarterback is taking his influence and platform seriously by giving back.

Colin Kaepernick has easily emerged as one of 2016’s most “woke” celebrities. From his newly awesome Afro to donating sales of his number one-selling jersey back into the community and his national anthem protest that has racked up tons of support, he is definitely using his platform to not only make a change, but also call attention to the racial injustice severely plaguing the country. His latest admirable effort involves the youth, in the form of a San Francisco youth program that is teaching local kids to know their rights and more.

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Proving that he is taking his newfound activist platform seriously, Colin Kaepernick is now attempting to pay it forward and give back to local children who need encouragement and some uplifting from those in their community. The Huffington Post has further details on Kaepernick’s Bay Area youth program and the plans to take it across the country.

Via Huffington Post:

The San Fransisco 49ers quarterback hosted a free youth camp in Oakland on Saturday called Know Your Rights. The program aims to teach kids about various important issues, including higher education, self-empowerment and interacting with law enforcement. Hundreds of black and Latino children from the Bay Area attended, according to the New York Daily News. “We’re here today to fight back and give you all lessons to combat the oppressive issues that our people face on a daily basis. We’re here to give you tools to help you succeed,” he told the attendees, according to the Daily News. “We’re going to give you knowledge on policing history, what the systems of policing in America were based on, and we’re also going to teach you skills to make sure you always make it home safely.”

The camp staff, which consists of Kaepernick and a small group of volunteers, also highlighted 10 basic rights they believe each child should know they have, including the right to be free, healthy, safe and educated. The day was constructed around these rights, which were inspired by the 10-point plan created by the Black Panther Party. “It’s exciting for me because I see a lot of hope, I see a lot of what is to come,” Kaepernick told The Undefeated. “And if you look at a lot of movements in past history, it started at a youth level and has built. And that’s really where change is created, is when youth come up and they’re built in that culture of, ‘I know what this means, I know why this is happening and I also know how to help create change now.’”

The quarterback told The Daily News that he has plans to expand Know Your Rights Camp to cities outside of the Bay Area. “What we’ve done here today in Oakland, we want to do all over the country, in cities all over this country, by bringing together local leaders, local activists and local youth, and not only giving them the skills and lessons they need, but we want to show them how much we love and value them.”

This would absolutely be a welcome program to implement in other cities around the country, especially to children who reside in inner cities with particularly high crime rates. Colin Kaepernick is consistently proving that he doesn’t just talk about it, he is about it.